Missouri

xocetaceans

(4,101 posts) Thu Apr 3, 2025, 09:41 PM 17 hrs ago

Anthem removes access to MU Health Care for thousands of patients

Here is the article from Fox 4 in Kansas City:

Anthem removes access to MU Health Care for thousands of patients

Posted: Apr 3, 2025 / 12:07 PM CDT
Updated: Apr 3, 2025 / 12:10 PM CDT

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield (Anthem) notified MU Health Care earlier this week that it no longer wishes to negotiate on its commercial contracts.

Effective as of Tuesday, April 1, MU Health Care’s more than 1,200 providers, 80 clinics and seven hospitals were removed from Anthem, Blue Cross Blue Shield—and HealthLink commercial plans that patients get through their employer or the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace.

This means patients may have to pay more out-of-pocket to see their MU Health Care doctors and care teams or may need to find a new, in-network provider for their care.

In February, Anthem made the decision to stop negotiating on a new Medicare Advantage contract and to remove MU Health Care from that network. Following this decision, MU Health Care said it continued negotiating with Anthem to remain in their commercial insurance network.

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https://fox4kc.com/news/missouri-news/anthem-removes-access-to-mu-health-care-for-thousands-of-patients/

It is interesting that Anthem continues ahead as if that incident with UnitedHealthcare never even happened, and that was only last December. (Alas, poor Brian, we knew him well, but he stopped contributing to the bottom line? Gone and efficiently forgotten?)

If the Democrats ever get another chance at cutting the insurance companies out of healthcare, will they now see it to be necessary or will they again yell at the progressive left as Rahm Emanuel did way back when, effectively saying that fighting to establish single payer healthcare is "fucking retarded"?

Rahm Emanuel, White House chief of staff, expected to resign
(This article is more than 14 years old)
Barack Obama's senior aide, a profane 'piledriver', looks likely to quit so he can seek to become mayor of Chicago

...

Emanuel has responded to criticism by calling liberal activists "fucking retarded" for planning to run TV ads attacking conservative Democrats who failed to back the health reforms.

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/sep/28/rahm-emanuel-white-house

Of course, all things worked out nicely for Rahm Emanuel as he became Mayor of Chicago and later US Ambassador to Japan, but how did his struggle to get the Democrats essentially to adopt the RomneyCare model of healthcare work out for patients and healthcare in the US? How will it effect all these people in Missouri who are using the ACA?